


we're still here (oneshot)

by transjnpr



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F, sugar rush au!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-08
Updated: 2021-01-08
Packaged: 2021-03-18 21:01:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28624518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/transjnpr/pseuds/transjnpr
Summary: You were on a frequency,The perfect opposite of meThough i never needed any proofTo trust the heart that beats inside of you.Only one thing really matters:We're still here. we're still here.Against all odds, we're still here. still here.-We're Still Here- Sleeping At last
Relationships: Ruby Rose/Nora Valkyrie
Comments: 2
Kudos: 22





	we're still here (oneshot)

It hadn’t been much- _shouldn’t_ have been much- but the mere glimpse of a news report through the window of a hotel had been enough to bring the nightmares back, and not just when Ruby was sleeping.

She’d been having them for weeks on end since that day- both nightmares and flashbacks- but they’d slowed and stopped shortly after she’d begun her mission with Jaune, Ren, and Nora. Until now. Until she’d caught sight of the news report, and it all came flooding back.

This one had been especially bad. It always was when she relieved the event, but this time, Pyrrha had looked right at her but she’d died, with wide eyes that seemed to say ‘ _why couldn’t you help me, Ruby? Why weren’t you faster?_ ’

She’d woken, stiff and covered in fear sweat, burning hot despite the cold chill and remnants of snow all around her. Now, she was sitting awake, trying not to let her ragged breathing wake the others as she desperately tried to shake the dream from her mind. But Pyrrha’s eyes still burned into her, she could still practically feel the heat radiating from Cinder, still hear her own scream ringing in her ears before everything had gone white.

Shaking, she forced herself to slip out of her sleeping back and wander further away from the group, feeling tears coming on that she knew would wake them up if she got too loud. They didn’t need that; they had their own problems. She wouldn’t dump hers on them; it wouldn’t be fair. She settled against a tree a short distance away, not caring about how cold the frozen grass was beneath her, and buried her head in her arms as she pulled her knees close to her chest.

She didn’t know how much time had passed before she heard footsteps, and looked up again to see Nora approaching her.

Shame burned into her. “Sorry,” She whispered quickly. “I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

Nora shook her head. “You didn’t,” She assured her. “I just kind of…knew.” She glanced back at where Ren and Jaune were still fast asleep. “Ren used to have nightmares too,” She explained, “I guess I’ve just…gotten a feel for these things.”

Ruby’s guilt didn’t fade. It was still her fault. And it wasn’t the only thing.

Nora sat next to her, close enough that their shoulders touched. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Ruby was almost tempted to take her up on the offer, but she forced the thought away. She shook her head. There was no point burdening Nora with this. She couldn’t be responsible for bringing down the most cheerful person in the group.

“Okay,” Nora replied. “But I’m still going to sit here with you until you’re ready to go back to sleep.”

Ruby didn’t argue. She was surprised enough that Nora didn’t insist on talking; she wasn’t going to try to tell her she couldn’t sit here. There was no saying ‘no’ to Nora. Not effectively, anyway.

She tried to keep her mind away from the dream; tried to think of anything else. There was the mission to focus on, that was something. Even if she had no idea what any of them were supposed to be doing aside from heading to Mistral and figuring it out from there. But thinking of the mission made her think of Cinder. And thinking of Cinder made her think of Pyrrha. And that’s pained green eyes burned into her soul again and wrapped her in an unforgiving grief. Pain like Beowolf claws raked over her heart, and she curled up tighter, desperately trying not to let it show to Nora.

“I had a crush on her, you know.”

Nora’s words surprised Ruby out of her dark thoughts, and she glanced at her in surprise and confusion. “Huh? Who?”

“Pyrrha,” Nora chuckled sadly. “Who else?”

“Oh.” Ruby blinked. “I didn’t…I never noticed.” That wasn’t totally true. Looking back, it made sense, with the way Nora had looked at Pyrrha in such awe every time she spoke.

“I don’t know how deep it went,” Nora continued. “You know, if it was true love or just a schoolgirl crush,” Her turquoise eyes clouded with bittersweet memories. “I just know I’d feel all light and excited whenever she talked to me, or got close enough…”

Ruby couldn’t place why, but something stirred inside her as Nora talked about Pyrrha that way, a feeling she didn’t like, but couldn’t quite describe. Something made her want to change the topic away from romance.

“It was uh…just you and Ren for a while, right?”

Nora pulled her knees to her chest just as Ruby was doing, nodding. “He was all I had for the longest time. I never had any other friends until I came to Beacon and met you guys. And Pyrrha…” She glanced up to where the shattered moon was partially visible through the tree branches above. “She was the first person aside from Ren who I ever could’ve called my best friend. She never looked down on me for being an orphan and she always made me feel like I could be…more.”

Ruby’s heart ached. She’d never put too much thought into how much closer the other three members of the group had been to Pyrrha. And now, because of her, that was _gone_. She hadn’t just cost them their teammate, she’d cost them their _best friend_.

She welled up, feeling her chest tighten. “I’m sorry,” She croaked, her voice breaking.

Nora shook her head slowly. “It’s not like it was your-”

“But it _was!_ ” Ruby snapped back, barely able to keep her voice down as tears ran down her face. Her fingers closed tightly around the folds of her skirt until her knuckles turned white. “If I’d just been faster, I could have…I could have…” She couldn’t finish, her throat closing up as she choked on tears. It was _all_ her fault.

Nora stared at her, her eyes wide and sad. “Ruby, you can’t blame yourself!” She insisted. “If her _team_ had been there- no,” She cut herself off, shaking her head fiercely. “We _can’t_ blame ourselves.” Ruby didn’t know if she was talking to her, or herself.

“We can’t blame ourselves,” Nora continued, “Because _we’re_ not the ones who set the attack on Beacon. _We_ aren’t the ones who shot an arrow through her chest,” She clutched at the cut-out marking in her shirt, and Ruby suddenly became starkly aware of what the slash through the heart-shape was meant to symbolize.

“ _We_ didn’t do it,” Nora insisted, her eyes burning, “But we can stop the people who _did_.” Her breath was getting shaky, Ruby noticed, despite her fierce tone. And then, all at once, Nora’s face crumpled as tears gathered in the corners of her eyes.

“But Ruby, I…I _miss_ her.”

Ruby stared at the other girl in shock. She’d seen a lot from Nora that had surprised her lately, but she had _never_ seen her cry. Perhaps because she’d not been around when Nora had learned of Pyrrha’s death, but it simply wasn’t something she’d ever imagined the tough, excitable, battle-hungry girl doing. She’d been keeping her feelings inside just as much as Ruby had.

Something overcame her, and she placed her hand over Nora’s before she even really knew what she was doing. At the touch, Nora visibly relaxed, blinking away thick tears.

“I miss her too,” Ruby whispered. “But…” She searched for the right words to comfort her friend. “We’re still here,” She stated softly. “And no matter who’s to blame, she would want us to keep fighting. To finish what she couldn’t.”

Nora sniffed quietly, her face relaxing. For a moment, she was quiet, and the only noise Ruby could hear was that of crickets in the distance, before Nora blinked slowly. “You…almost sound like her,” She chuckled softly, “So wise.”

Ruby wiped her own face with her sleeve. Something about those words, coming from Nora, made her heart warm. “She really was smarter than all of us,” She replied. “I bet we’d be on Anima already if she was here.”

Nora huffed quietly. “I think she took the only shared braincell the whole team had,” She joked. “We’re kind of hopeless without her.” She heaved a deep sigh. “Sorry for breaking down on you,” She apologized softly, not meeting Ruby’s gaze. “I don’t know what came over me.”

Ruby closed her fingers tighter over Nora’s hand. “It’s okay,” She whispered. “You don’t have to hide your feelings from me.”

Something flashed in Nora’s eyes. “I…no, I guess not,” She gave a soft chuckle and added, quieter, “Not those ones.”

Before Ruby could try to figure out what she meant by that, Nora lay against her, her head resting on her shoulder, the few inches of height between them meaning that she fit perfectly in place. Something inside Ruby jumped, like a frog in her chest had just been woken up and had started bouncing around. She didn’t know what to make of it, but she didn’t want to fight it. She laid back against Nora and closed her eyes, feeling her grief slip away ever-so-slightly.

She didn’t know how long they sat there for, her hand still over Nora’s, with the crickets as the only noise to fill the forest. Ruby had gotten cold earlier, as the heat of fear had faded away, but now, warm was all she felt.

When she opened her eyes again, the moon was slightly lower in the sky, getting closer to the horizon.

“We should uh...probably go back to sleep soon.” She whispered.

“Right,” Nora murmured. But she didn’t move, and neither did Ruby.

As Ruby closed her eyes again, unseen to both girls, a golden maple leaf slipped from one of the trees above, and landed gently on the ground, right between them, as an unseen spirit silently signaled her approval.


End file.
